Theo Just Had A Very Crazy Episode

[Synthbent715]

Theo is our rescue kitty that we've been rehabilitating for the past few months. Please see this thread for all the info: Really Stumped With Eye/face Swelling And Irritation.

We are really freaked out right now. About a week ago he had his vaccinations, and we scheduled him for neutering for July 17th. In the mean time, our vet wanted us to slowly cut back his meds, to see how far we could cut the dosage before his eye started itching again. Right now we're only able to cut it back to the Atopica every other day, and the Gabapentin every day still. We'be been putting him in a little harness, and bringing him upstairs to socialize with the other cats for months now, and he does great with it.

Today, one of our cats laid a hairball in the living room, and my wife cleaned it up. We have this resolve carpet cleaner in a spray bottle that we use to clean up cat barf, so she used that. Right after she cleaned it up, Theo came and took a smell of it. After he did that, she took him off his harness, in order to bring him to the couch so we could give him some love. All of the sudden he freaked out and scratched her hand, ripped her shirt, and scratched her side, he got free and took off running down the hallway. I got down and waited for him to run back, and I caught him. He looked like he was running from something that was trying to kill him. I took him to the couch and held onto him while she got out of the room to clean her bleeding hand.

He was hyperventilating, and his ear was twitching like crazy, but he seemed to have calmed a bit. I picked him up, to take him down to the basement (where he is currently living, its a finished basement) and he did the same thing to me. Cut my hand really good, ripped my shirt, scratched my chest, and then he even urinated on me. I didn't let go, I was afraid of what he'd do to the other cats if I did. I put him in the basement and my wife and I just sat on the bed and watched him.

He was acting really scared, and just staring at my wife like she was going to kill him. She thought he was scared of her, so she left. At this point, he was just staring at the spot were she was sitting, like there was a wolf sitting there ready to eat him or something. I picked him up again to put him on the bed so I could give him his medicine, and he jumped from my arms, halfway across the basement and hid in the corner. I finally got him up on the bed to give him his medicine, and we even stripped the sheets on the bed. He is still looking at that one spot like he see's something.

He's also got an office chair down there next to the window that he likes to lounge on. My wife was trying to get him up on it, but he was just staring at the base of the chair, as if there was something there that was going to hurt him. We're upstairs now, but he's still in the basement acting scared and crazy, its as if he's hallucinating or something.

We've had Theo for six months and this is the first time we've seen this behavior. He is the sweetest cat we've ever seen otherwise, very kind and loving with humans, purrs constantly, nuzzles constantly, never so much as hissed at us. We're really confused and scared right now. If anyone has any idea's please let us know. We will call our vet when they open, to get some ideas from her.

Thanks.

 

[maggiedemi]

Glad to see you posting again, but sad to hear what happened. It might be something in the carpet cleaner, he could have inhaled it or licked it. I would use something like a vinegar/water mix or something cat safe like Nature's Miracle next time to clean up cat vomit.

 

[Synthbent715]

We have a vet appt. for 10:15. Theo is slowly starting to come back around. He is still fixated on the area under the chair, and a spot on the bed, and he still is very jumpy if I make a sudden movement or noise, but he is now talking again, his cute little meow. He is also nuzzling again, and laying down. He is limping pretty bad now on his back leg, I think he may have jumped too high or too far and hurt it, so we'll have the vet look at that too. He's also back to eating and drinking, so I think whatever it was is starting to wear off.

 

[maggiedemi]

That's good that he's coming around. Yeah, make sure to mention the carpet cleaner to the vet just in case. Maybe he was trying to get away from the smell and hurt himself. Did he scratch you after he hurt his leg or before?

 

[Synthbent715]

That's good that he's coming around. Yeah, make sure to mention the carpet cleaner to the vet just in case. Maybe he was trying to get away from the smell and hurt himself. Did he scratch you after he hurt his leg or before?

Not sure when he hurt his leg. He hasn't even jumped as high, run as fast, or thrashed as violently as he did during this episode, so it wasn't until he was somewhat calmed down that I noticed him limping. Right now his pupils are back to normal, he is meowing a lot and he is even back to purring. We aren't going to try to pick him up again until we have to put him in his carrier for the vet.

 

[MizLizzie]

I can't add anything helpful here, other than to say God bless you for caring for Theo. You and your wife sound like truly decent people. I hope the vet can shed some light.

 

[maggiedemi]

Please come back and let us know what the vet says.

 

[Synthbent715]

Please come back and let us know what the vet says.

I will, we're at the vet now, waiting for the doc. Theo has come out of his cage and snuggled up in my wife's lap. He seems fine now, just a bit lethargic.

 

[Synthbent715]

 

[Synthbent715]

Well, we've been back from the vet for a few hours now. She checked his pupils, and checked his temperature. He was acting totally normal, if not a little worn out. She said everything seemed fine, they all know Theo quite well and they were shocked about how he was acting when he was having his episode. His leg is sprained but not broken, so he's just got to rest it off. He's been relaxing in the basement, he's acting pretty normal, but still a bit spooked and irritated. I was sitting on the bed when he was eating and I called him over, he ran over and meowed and came and rubbed his face on my hand the way he normally does, but then he looked at that one area of the bed and he jumped, and stepped back and looked really scared again. Something about that particular section of bed is scaring him still. I've stripped all the sheets and pillows and threw them in the wash because he did pee on one of the pillows. I moved the office chair, and he's still fixated on the bottom of the chair. I'm going to flip the mattress and see if he's still freaking out about that area of the bed. Still very confused and worried about him, I certainly don't want him living in fear.

 

[maggiedemi]

He might have inhaled or tasted the carpet cleaner and then ran away so fast that he sprained his leg. When cats get hurt sometimes they blame the person or object next to them, they think that person or object did it to them. Glad to hear that he is doing better though.

 

[maggiedemi]

How is Theo doing today? How is his leg?

 

[Synthbent715]

How is Theo doing today? How is his leg?

He's getting better. He's been slowly coming around to his normal self. We noticed pretty quickly that it's actually both of his left side legs that are hurt, he's limping around on both of them. His front leg is getting better, every time he stretches he opens that paw up a little bit more. The back leg still seems to be bugging him. When he sits next to his bowl to eat, after a few seconds he slides his leg under him and kind of halfway lay down. He still limps when he walks, and he hasn't been eating as much, but every time I check on him he seems more and more like his cheerful, loving self.

 

[valentine319]

Resolve is strong smelling. Considering a cats smell is even stronger than ours maybe it kinda made him high and he just freaked out. I noticed he's a rescue kitty.i have no clue the circumstances he came from but possibly if he came from a situation where if he had an accident they rubbed his nose in it and used resolve? It's just another possibility.

I'm glad to hear he's doing better.

 

[Synthbent715]

Resolve is strong smelling. Considering a cats smell is even stronger than ours maybe it kinda made him high and he just freaked out. I noticed he's a rescue kitty.i have no clue the circumstances he came from but possibly if he came from a situation where if he had an accident they rubbed his nose in it and used resolve? It's just another possibility.

I'm glad to hear he's doing better.

Yeah, actually, the first day we brought him in our vet didn't know why his face looked so bad (as seen in photo below) but one of her theories was that he had gotten into some sort of chemicals. Maybe he had some PTSD or something.

 

[Synthbent715]

I'd like to thank everyone for taking time to talk about this with me, We really love Theo and it's nice to see how many people also care about him.

 

[valentine319]

It's very possible or even sprayed in the face. You've done an amazing job. It's very possible something chemical now would freak him out and give some ptsd. Resolve also makes a powder. It smells the same. I could also see it causing a severe allergy in some cats. I'm so glad he's on the mend. I would definitely change to natures miracle.

I did see an article where a powder carpet cleaner was used in a man's house and it killed his bird and cat. There are so many things we have to watch out for.

At least he's on the mend and you know to pull the resolve. Thank you for taking such amazing care of Theo. Once he gets fixed he'll settle even more.

We're also finding out Lysol and pinesol can be toxic to them.

 

[Synthbent715]

Hey everyone. Just thought I'd update Theo's status in case anyone is wondering. Yesterday he had his appointment and finally got neutered! Six months after we took him in, but finally done. Late last week his leg finally started feeling better, this was after about two weeks of him being absolutely handicapped by it. I was bringing his food and water to his bed because he wouldn't climb down (even after I made him some steps) to eat it on the floor. Today he is home and acting about 90% normal. He has a slight limp, but he's being a lot more active, maybe too active considering he just got fixed! He hasn't shown any other signs of hallucinations or freaking out like he did before. Right now he's got about another week in the basement before we really try to bring him upstairs for good and getting all the cats comfortable with one another. That will be a whole other battle, considering our three boys have been living together for 12 years, and our tortie had been living with them for 8 years. They're all lazy, spoiled, cats and Theo still has some streets in him, and way more energy. Thanks everyone for the kind words and advice.

 

[maggiedemi]

Theo looks really good! Glad you were able to get him fixed. Let us know how it goes when you introduce him to your other cats. My male cat loves other cats, he escaped once and I found him playing with the neighbors' cats. Hopefully yours will become friends, but sometimes it takes a while...

 

[valentine319]

He's looking great! Hope they all just get along.